In multi-speed Europe, Czech Republic is not in any rush

June 25, 2019

Our Jiří Lacina explores, in his latest blog, the Czech Republic and its engagement in both the V4 and the so-called multi-speed Europe.

A recent European Council vote on cutting carbon emissions showed that Czech Republic is not so eager to move towards further European integration. And that perhaps Visegrad Four is soon going to be Visegrad Three.

Today, with 28 members including the UK, which has been leaving the European Union for the past three years, the situation is far more complicated. For some time, there was a notion that France and Germany would shape the future of the EU together, but with Emmanuel Macron entering the stage and putting forward bold proposals, Germany has proceeded more carefully, and both partners often disagree.

The euro is not the only factor that leads to differentiation and disunity within the V4, though. Other is, for example, the democratic character of states. Slovakia and Czechia are deemed more democratic than Poland and Hungary, which is the least democratic from the four.

Following a surge of the Green parties in Western Europe in this year’s European elections and the growing disagreements between coal-abandoning and coal-dependent countries, respectively between those aware of climate change and those denying it, the climate could replace declining migration as the topic which serves to demonize the European Union in the V4.